Jamaica Blue Mountain: Coffee from on High

Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, grown in the Blue Mountain range in Jamaica, with peaks as high as 7,500 feet, is perhaps the most prized coffee in the world.  It is famous for its full, rich flavor, clean taste, low acidity,  notable sweetness, extraordinary body, and powerful, intense aroma. This tasty coffee doesn’t come cheap.  A one pound […]

Surprised? Caffeine DOES NOT Increase Blood Pressure — PERIOD!

A major metastudy, reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which followed more than 170,000 people over a period of 30 years, has definitively demonstrated that caffeine does not increase blood pressure.  Many doctors and kibbitzers from the Dark Side have been attacking caffeine for many years, spreading the myth that caffeine increases blood […]

Caffeine Mugs: Sipping in Style

If caffeine is what you’re really after when you drink your daily cups of coffee, perhaps it’s time to declare your interest to the world by enjoying the use of an eponymous caffeine drinking vessel. One nifty item is called a Caffeine Molecule Mug. This glass mug with a stable design is emblazoned with the […]

Yerkes-Dodson Effect: How Much Coffee or Caffeine is Too Much?

One of the reasons that caffeine is not a drug of abuse is that, unlike cocaine, amphetamine, or heroin, caffeine does not produce effects that indefinitely increase as you increase the dose.  Caffeine has a built in mechanism that guarantees that a little does a little, more does more, but even more starts to reverse the beneficial effects […]

Vienna Celebrates Coffee House Founder's 100th Birthday

Austrian President Heinz Fischer joined a national celebration of Café Hawelka by congratulating Leopold Hawelka, one of the nation’s most famous coffee house founders, on his 100th birthday on April 11, 2011.  Hawelka’s café was opened in central Vienna in 1939 and quickly became a gathering spot for Austria’s traditional coffee house culture as well as […]

Starbucks' Burned, Bitter Beans Invade China

Starbucks is spreading its legacy of burned, bitter beans to China.  Traditionally a nation of tea drinkers, China will now be sold Starbucks’ line of cheap, low quality coffee in an effort to enlist the Chinese into the tasteless army of Starbucks drinkers who already fill hundreds of coffeehouses in the West. Starbucks has launched its […]

Caffeine Content: Coffee and Tea

Unfortunately, the caffeine content of coffee and tea is almost never reported on a label or a sign in a coffee shop or anywhere else.  This table will give you a fighting chance at estimating how much caffeine you are getting from some of your favorite drinks. Preparation Method Mg of Caffeine COFFEE (6 oz […]

Caffeine Boosts Muscle Rebound after Exercise

Caffeine improves performance in almost every athletic activity, including, for example, sprinting, long distance running and swimming, weight lifting, and archery.  It is important to recognize, however, that caffeine also helps muscles recover more quickly after a major workout or competition.  Eating carbohydrates is one way of enabling muscles to recover glycogen, their primary fuel.  When glycogen is […]